


let us grow to surpass our parents

by Tobi_Black



Series: Let Us 'verse [10]
Category: Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: Clone Wars (2003) - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Clone Rebellion, Artoo Swears A Lot, Gen, Let Them Talk to Luke And Leia About Shmi And Anakin And Padme, Post-Order 66, These Droids Have Been At The Heart Of The Skywalker Saga Since The Beginning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 10:41:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15532473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tobi_Black/pseuds/Tobi_Black
Summary: When Uncle Owen had gotten a new pair of droids, Luke had no idea that these weren't just any droids. No idea the message one carried, or the history they shared.He would find out though.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This wrote itself. Apparently I really wanted Luke to have a conversation with C-3PO and R2-D2 about the fact that they had known his parents, known his grandmother.
> 
> I will not be convinced otherwise that Artoo is cussing pretty much continously throughout his entire time on screen, and that he just gets away with it because it appears few understand binary and those who do don't care enough to stop.  
> He also is a bit zap-happy.
> 
> . . .
> 
> He's the droid equivalent of that cranky old man yelling at you to get the hell of his lawn yet regaling anyone who will listen about his war stories.

**5 BBY**

Luke couldn’t stop thinking about the message recorded by the R2 unit his uncle had bought.

The woman was beautiful, looking like a princess from one of his aunt’s stories. It was how her spine had been steel, eyes resolute even as she’d all but demanded help, that was most memorable though.

Something about her had ringed with familiarity despite how he was sure he’d never met her. He knew he would have remembered ever meeting somebody with as much daring as she had.

And there was something about her that called him to answer her plea – for him to come to her aid.

So, he’d left a short message for his aunt and uncle that he was going to visit Old Ben, and taken R2D2 and C3PO with him on his speeder.

The R2 unit had quickly caught on that he was taking him where he wanted to go, and had zapped the other droid when he’d tried to hang back at the farm.

There was a moment where he almost had stopped Artoo, when he saw how the other droid had stopped and stared at the headstones of the grandparents he’d never known.

Focusing on the one that read _Shmi Skywalker_.

Then it had passed as the smaller droid had cussed out his friend for dawdling when this was no time for it.

Threepio had spoken up as the farm passed out of sight, “Young Master, did you know Mistress Shmi?”.

He’d looked at the golden-skinned droid with a small frown, “Uncle Owen told me she’d died years before I was born. How do you know my grandmother?”.

Artoo had beeped rapidly, waving his shock-stick energetically, demanding to know if he was a Skywalker.

It had been luck that he hadn’t been zapped by accident by the energetic little droid, and thus didn’t crash.

He’d shifted gears for the speeder to a higher setting at the sight of a dust cloud rising in the distance, wanting to get to Ben’s before that sandstorm hit so his flesh wasn’t flayed from his bones, “My name’s Luke Skywalker.”

Artoo beeped and whistled inarticulately in his excitement, but Threepio wasn’t much better, “Master Luke! You’ve grown up handsomely! Why it feels just like yesterday that your father was building me to aid his mother on this very planet!”

Luke almost crashed the speeder into the sands at that, but recovered at the last second, “You knew my father and grandmother? You knew _me_ before Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru took me in?”

Artoo beeped for several long seconds, exclaiming that he’d served his father in the Clone Wars and they’d been the best pair of droid-and-human-companion in the kriffing sky.

Threepio had patted the round dome of his old friend in a _there-there_ gesture, “Artoo was very proud of that, but with the rather . . disastrous ending of the Wars and change in climate since, he hasn’t gotten to bring it up in a while. I did know Master Anakin and Mistress Shmi as he built me, but once I was complete, he had already become a Jedi Padawan and I was gifted to Queen Amidala. Thirteen years I served as her protocol droid, and was witness to many of her days in the Senate. I was even there during her wedding on Naboo!”.

Luke almost didn’t know what to say, his head spinning with so many questions he’d never thought to ask when his Uncle had refused to talk about his parents the few times he’d asked.

By some twist of fate, he had the opportunity now and he didn’t want to waste it.

He had a name for his father, but all he had for his mother was that she’d died.

Uncle Owen had never answered if she’d died in childbirth or later – and he’d been torn between hoping that she was alive, that she’d handed him off to his aunt and uncle to be safe as she fought the good fight, or facing the fact that either she’d died giving birth to him or she’d abandoned him.

“Did you know my mother as well?”

Threepio was quiet for a moment, “Yes. Master Anakin loved her from nearly the moment he met her the day Master Jinn freed him. They married early in the Clone Wars, in secret because he was a Jedi and Jedi are not supposed to have attachments, and she was a Senator for the Republic. She was a good woman.”

Artoo whistled and said something about how she was also one kriffing good shot with a blaster.

Luke continued his inquiry as they flew across the sands into the Jundland Wastes.

_Tell me a story about my father, please._

_What was my mother like other than a good shot?_

_What was her name?_

_You said ‘freed’ – was my father born a slave?_

_Was Grandmother Shmi a slave too then?_

_My father was a Jedi?_

He almost wished they would never get to Ben’s, so he could ask every question he could ever think of.


	2. Chapter 2

Luke blinked awake gradually – half expecting to be tied up and bound after being ambushed as he had been – then jolted forward at the sight of a familiar face, “Ben!”.

Ben smiled faintly, “Luke, what are you doing so far from your uncle’s farm? You know it is dangerous around these parts.”

He shifted until he was sitting up, so he could properly face the older man, “Looking for you Ben. Artoo has a message for Obi-Wan Kenobi and I thought you might know who that is.”

Artoo prowled forward, beeping rapidly with shrill whistles mixed in as he waved his shock-stick, demanding to be taken to Master Kenobi, so he could rescue his human companion.

Ben eyed Artoo for a moment, “You wily old droid. Cantankerous as ever. Whoever gave you that upgrade should have been zapped with it.”

Artoo jabbed his shock-stick in Ben’s direction, cussing him out as he commented about how he learned it all from him.

Ben raised one eyebrow, “I’ll give you wily, but the cantankerous part was all Anakin.”

Luke interjected before the two could digress in who gave Artoo what personality trait, “Do you know Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ben?”

Ben stared off into the distance for a moment, then quickly side-stepped when Artoo tried to zap him for taking too long to answer. He glared at the droid for a second, “Obi-Wan Kenobi, that’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time. I should know him – he’s me after all.”

Luke stared at him for a long second, “What?”.

Ben began walking away, Artoo quick on his heels waving his zapper threateningly at the older man’s back, “It’s a name from another life. When I returned to Tatooine after a long absence, I put aside that name. From a certain point of view, Obi-Wan has been dead for thirteen years. I hardly expected to see any sign of that life any time soon.”

He gave a side-eye to the droid, neatly stepping aside from the shock-stick, “In fact, the only person who knew Obi-Wan Kenobi was not dead and here on Tatooine was Bail. Who must have sent you, Artoo.”

Artoo tried again, yelling about how Leia had sent him and needed his rescue.

Ben faltered and almost got zapped for his trouble, “ _Leia_ sent you? Why?”

Luke looked between the droid and Ben, “Who is Leia?”

The older man blinked and raised his gaze from Artoo, “The daughter of an old friend. One I haven’t seen since she was but a day old.” – frowning faintly as he looked out through him, as if he wasn’t there – “I didn’t know Bail had told her about me. We’d agreed that the less she knew about me, the safer she would be.”

Artoo moved forward and tried again to zap the older man, forcing Ben to start moving again, screaming about how time was of the essence.

Ben kept a sharp eye on Artoo as every time he slowed down for any reason, the droid tried to zap him, forcing them to go at the droid’s pace – thought obviously not as fast as Artoo wanted to go as Threepio was not built for speed and struggled to keep up at anything other than a fast walk, and he muttered but slowed to match his old friend.

Luke waited until they had gotten through a series of sharp turns that the older man only narrowly managed to avoid getting zapped by the fact Artoo struggled himself, before asking his question, “Why would Leia ask for your help?”.

Ben dodged Artoo’s sneaky attempt to zap him when he didn’t walk far enough ahead without looking at the droid, then turned a small glare at him, “Why are you so mad at me, Artoo?”

The droid waved his shock-stick in a rather good imitation of a fist being shaken at Ben, beeping loudly about how Ben had just disappeared after that terrible day on Mustafar and aside from one instance, had bowed out of the fight against the Empire when he was needed most.

Ben looked stricken, then held his ground with hard eyes, “Sometimes to win the war, you need to think long-term. First though, I needed time to process all the death I had seen and felt, and once I had as much as I could. Are you accusing me of being selfish after losing nearly every single person I grew up with in one fell swoop, that I needed time to grieve for?”

Artoo’s shock-stick sagged, and he beeped the negative as he put the little weapon away.

They were quiet and neither moved from where they’d come to stand off at, before the droid beeped quietly – and for the first time since they’d met, not a single curse word was uttered – to apologize.

Ben accepted it immediately, “We all grieve in different ways, Artoo.”

Then he looked at him, acknowledging his question, “Leia wants me help for the same reason Artoo was mad at me for leaving. I served as a High General in the Clone Wars, and she must want me to rejoin the fight.”

Artoo beeped then, and the message Luke has seen the beginning for started up.

_“Obi-Wan Kenobi, you are my only hope, if you are getting this. I need your help now more than ever because right now, Darth Vader has boarded my ship looking for ‘a familiar presence’. I was on my way to you originally because I had recently shown a Force-sensitivity that my father wanted trained before I caught the Empire’s notice. I need you to go to Alderaan, because if Vader suspects that my father had known where you have been all this time, he will go to Alderaan and destroy it as a point. I want you to protect my people. I will die before I reveal the Rebellion’s secrets, but if my men are tortured as well, they might reveal enough to get them on your trail at the least._

_May the Force be with you.”_

For just a moment, not even a heartbeat, Luke was hit with a thousand emotions that he couldn’t name before they disappeared.

But Ben straightened, and there was fire in the depths of his blue-grey eyes that brightened them.

He moved quickly then, far more spry than Luke had ever seen him.


	3. Chapter 3

Ben had lead them to a small farm far away from anyone else, hidden in the Wastes and nearly inaccessible by anyone not on foot and difficult even then if one didn’t know the way.

They’d been there only long enough for Ben to collect a handful of things that he tossed into an already ready pack.

Artoo had started beeping almost too fast to be understood at the sight of the handle of some energy-weapon that Luke belatedly realized must be a lightsaber.

Ben had paused with it in his hand, before holding it out to him, “This was your father’s, Luke. Now it is yours. Be careful not to lose it; your ‘saber is your life.” – which Artoo had beeped something about how he was a hypocrite, and Ben ignored in favor of giving a wry grin –  “And it is difficult to get the key component for one now days.”

Luke watched as Ben did not pull out another one, though his eye caught on a similar looking thing barely seen hanging from his waist beneath his robe, “Where’s yours, Ben?”.

Ben had colored faintly, which stood out particularly well with the way his skin was still three shades too pale for Tatooine because of his graying ginger hair, “Ah, I left it behind with my name.”

Then he had hurried to finish grabbing his few things before anyone could ask if by ‘left behind’ he meant ‘lost’.


	4. Chapter 4

They returned to the Lars farm by the dusk of one sun, to be greeted by a glowering older man.

He gave Luke a mildly disappointed-disapproving look for a moment before he focused on Ben.

Luke didn’t get a chance to speak, to defend Ben because his Uncle had never liked him even being mentioned and thus Luke had never brought up how he wanted to invite the older man for dinner when he thought Ben must have been lonely all by himself. Owen opened his mouth, clearly about to tell Ben to go away in the least kind terms he could think of, when Ben beat him to it.

“Owen, it can’t be put off forever. He needs to learn, and I need to leave so he must come with me.”

The other man’s lip had curled in anger, but this time he was cut off by the woman who came up behind him, “We knew this day was coming Owen. Don’t be petty, because one way or another, Luke will leave the safety of our home and come face-to-face with his heritage. Is it not better that he goes with Ben, where he will have some protection, then for him to be left with only us to protect him if he is found?”

His eyes narrowed, but now he just looked unhappy instead of just straight-up pissed, “Beru, why must you have reasonable points in favor of _him_?”

Beru rolled her eyes and wrapped her arm around his waist, “Because your grudge with your half-brother is silly. He’s been reasonable, and has respected your wishes to stay away for the last fourteen _years_. It won’t kill you to be in the same space as him for five _minutes_.”

Owen pulled her closer, “Ugh, your logic. Fine, I see your point. I’m not happy about it though.”

“You don’t have to be happy about it Owen. No one’s asking you to be.”

She kissed her husband on the cheek before beckoning Luke closer, and pulled him into a hug between them when he did, “Remember Luke, we’ll always be your family and will always love you. Go off and save the universe if you must, or whatever it is young Jedi-in-training do in the shadow of the Empire, just come back and visit us someday.”

Luke colored, whining faintly but didn’t pull away, sinking into the hug eagerly, “Aunt Beru . . !”.

He glanced back, embarrassed that Ben saw, only to see the man watching with a faint fond smile and sad eyes.

Beru raised her head over his, a tall woman who still had a few inches on him, to look at Ben “Come here Ben. You’re not going to get another chance to be hugged by Owen without you getting punched in the process.”

Luke turned to watch how Ben hesitated, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

The man smiled, any trace of previous emotion gone, “The gesture is appreciated, Beru, but there is still a high chance Owen will punch me if I get so close.”

Owen gave a smile with teeth, “He’s not wrong.”

Beru dropped the hug to smack her husband in the arm, “Can you not be rude for five minutes?”

Luke stepped back and ran inside to pack a small bag of things, understanding it was essentials and anything he couldn’t live without with who-knows-how-long until he came back. He was quick about it, as they had only a few hours before second dusk and night-fall, and Ben must surely be wanting to be going as quick as possible.

Leia was waiting.


End file.
